Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Human Rights Watch said Russian
officials may be behind threats made to one of its top
researchers in the country, warning that the authorities are
trying to force it out of Russia.

“We’re all aware of the severe crackdown that is taking
place today in Russia against civil society,” Kenneth Roth,
executive director of the New York-based group, said in a video
statement broadcast to reporters in Moscow today. “Their intent
was clearly to frighten Human Rights Watch to stop our
monitoring and reporting on human rights in Russia today.”

Tanya Lokshina, the deputy head of Human Rights Watch’s
Moscow office, received text messages last week threatening her
and her unborn child ahead of a planned trip to investigate
rights abuses in the restive southern region of Dagestan, she
said. The messages made reference to personal details such as
the gender of the unborn child, her stage of pregnancy and her
unlisted home address, Lokshina said.

Russia has passed legislation requiring groups that receive
aid from abroad to register as “foreign agents” and submit to
tighter restrictions. Lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a
bill last month that widened the definition of state treason and
allowed the charge to be laid against Russians who help foreign
organizations.

President Vladimir Putin’s administration also ordered the
closure this month of U.S. aid agency USAID, which has financed
NGOs in Russia including Golos, a vote-monitoring group, and
Memorial, a human-rights organization.

“These threats will have precisely the opposite effect,”
Roth said of the text messages to Lokshina. “Human Rights Watch
will redouble our efforts to our work in Russia to defend the
rights of the Russian people against this crackdown.”

No-one at the Foreign Ministry’s press service could be
reached after working hours today and spokesman Alexander
Lukashevich didn’t answer calls to his mobile phone.